Medical instrument



y 1950 E. MYLLER 2,514,665

MEDICAL INSTRUMENT Filed Jan. 11, 1949 firs. Z

INVENTOR. ERNEST MILLEE WW W41 A r TORA/Ey Patented July 11, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MEDICAL INSTRUMENT Ernest Myller, New York, N. Y.

Application January 11, 1949, Serial No. 70,259

1 Claim.

My invention relates to a medical instrument for diagnostical purposes and more particularly to an instrument for use inthe early detection of uterine cancer.

As known to those skilled in the medical art, exfoliated cancer cells have been detected by Papanicolaou in the vaginal smear of women with uterine cancer.

Ayre introduced the method of scraping the cervical canal in order to obtain more concentrated smears and especially more cells from the cervical epithelium. The important area to be investigated is the junctional region between the columnar cell epithelium since'a large majority of squamous cell cancer originates at that line. The detection of cancer of the cervix at the earliest moment will increase the possibility of curing this dreadful disease much more than has all the progress in treatment up to the present time. The well founded assumption that non-invasive carcinoma may be present intra-epithelially for many years without any symptoms and without progress, demands an examination of every woman of cancer age by the vaginal smear method, or, better, with cervical scraping.

It is an object of this invention to provide an instrument, a cervical scraper, adapted to obtain satisfactory scrapings with routine vaginal examination.

It is another object of the invention to provide an instrument of this kind which, when properly used, causes no trauma other than the scraping off of epithelium. This is performed by the special construction of the scraper of my invention.

Other objects of my invention will be in part obvious and in part hereafter pointed out.

The invention accordingly consists of the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the embodiment of the invention hereinafter described, and of which the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.

In the accompanying drawing:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the scraper in application.

Fig. 2 is a front view of the device.

Fig. 3 shows in larger scale the head of the device.

Fig. 4 is a top view of the head as shown in Fig. 3.

Referring to said drawing, the instrument comprises a stem I provided with a head 2 consisting of a small cone. A handle 4 is provided at the lower end of said stem.

Attached to the cone are means adapted to v scrape off epithelium.

The scraping means as shown in the drawing may consist of a blunt edged piece of material 3, a fin, on the median line of the cone and extending all over the surface of the same, i. e., the sides as well as the top.

The instrument is inserted into the cervical canal after the cervix has been exposed by a vaginal speculum.

The device is to be turned once or twice, with only slight pressure. No experience is necessary to obtain satisfactory smears. The epithelial cells adhere to the fin. The material so obtained is transferred to glass slides by wiping oil the fin. The slides are at once immersed into the fixative solution.

The conical form of the instrument stabilizes it in the longitudinal axis of the cervical canal and permits it to reach the epithelial junction whether the cervix is small or large. Only occasionally suspicious areas outside the canal should be scraped ofi separately with the top of the instrument where the fin forms a suitable means for scraping.

The foregoing description and drawing describe the instrument in what I consider a preferable form, but it will of course be understood that the instrument may be varied without altering the principle of the invention.

I claim:

A medical scraper for diagnostical purposes causing no trauma other than the scraping off of epithelium when used in the cervical channel, said scraper comprising a stem provided with a handle and with a head consisting of a cone fitting in the cervical channel, and means provided on said. cone adapted to scrape off epithelium smoothly, said means consisting of a blunt edged fin provided on the median line of the cone, extending all over said cone, i. e., the sides as well as the top.

ERNEST MYLLER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Advertisement of the Clay-Adams Co. Inc., 141

E. 25th Street, New York City 10, New York, in Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics for October, 1948; a copy of this advertisement is available in Div. of the U. S. Patent Ofiice. 

